The number of machine-to-machine connected devices—the Internet of Things—is growing faster than the world population. Cisco estimates that M2M connections will grow from 4.9 billion in 2015 to 12.8 billion by 2020 (estimated world population in 2020: 7.7 billion). Growth in IoT security expenditures is as robust. Gartner puts endpoint IoT security spending at $1,183 billion in 2015, and estimates $3,010 billion in 2020. “Everybody’s realizing that IoT security is a serious problem,” says Xu Zou, CEO […]
Ransomware continues to pose a potent threat to individuals and, increasingly, to companies. What’s worse, all signs point to ransomware attacks escalating the rest of this year and into 2017. How bad is it? Arctic Wolf Networks has measured a 433 percent spike in ransomware attacks over the past year, and the FBI says victims paid up $209 million in the first quarter of 2016, up from $24 million in all of 2015. And that only […]
Nearly all of the largest organizations throughout the world had their credentials exposed by cyber criminals last year, a new study has found. The study, done by London- and San Francisco-based Digital Shadows, which provides clients with information about their external digital risks, determined that 97 percent of the world’s largest 1,000 organizations had credentials exposed. The credentials are valuable to cyber criminals who “are increasingly turning to credential stuffing tools,” Digital Shadows officials say, […]
While the writing has been on the wall for a long time, last Friday it was in the news wires when a new strain of ransomware called WannaCrypt raged like an out-of-control wildfire across Europe and Asia, ultimately impacting computers in 150 countries. For many affected by this hack, a few hundred dollars in ransom money is a pittance when compared to the cost of hiring someone to attempt the recovery of your files after […]
Don’t expect the financial services industry to ever willingly disclose how much it loses to cyber thieves on an annual basis. But make no mistake determined, well-funded hacking rings continue to breach banking systems on a regular basis. And they continue to inflict material losses–likely at a scale the general public would find shocking. Breach attempts against financial services firms occurs 24/7/365, says Brian Soldato, senior product management director at NSS Labs, an Austin, Tex.-based […]
TV show leak is good reminder for everyone to put their digital lives in order The premature release of the new season of “Orange is the New Black” by hackers is no big deal. Really. You can see why producers made the calculation that stopping the “hack” was not even worth the alleged $66,000 or so the hackers demanded as “ransom,” according to TorrentFreak. Why? Online show fans are very familiar with the restraint required […]
I’ve written about tax-related crime for years, and have always offered this fail-safe rule to avoid tax scams: If you ever receive a call from the IRS about back taxes or any other money you supposedly owe the government, hang up because it’s a scam. There was something comforting about that advice — maybe even a little satisfying. I mean, who secretly doesn’t want to hang up on the taxman? But it seemed no amount […]
Cybersecurity continues to bolster the focus of national—and global—attention, with cybersecurity professionals gaining significant strides against international cyber crime. Most recently, two Russian intelligence officers and two criminal hackers were charged in a Yahoo data breach incident, which started in January 2014 and involved 500 million compromised Yahoo accounts. The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI are calling the indictments a victory for information sharing and encourage other companies to report breaches to the federal […]
Recently, I was booking a hotel reservation for a family member and in the process was asked to provide certain information. It was a simple third-party credit card authorization. What could possibly go wrong? Plenty. Beyond the fact that I am professionally paranoid — I wrote a book about it — there are so many ways for your information to wind up in the wrong hands, especially your credit card information. When we provide our […]
America got mail this weekend, about 30 emails, according to reports. They were written as recently as last year by then-Governor Mike Pence and sent from his personal AOL account. While this is a political story, it is not about politics. It’s about a nationwide problem. The emails, released to the Indianapolis Star in response to a public records request, include state business. The revelation is that Pence used his private email account to conduct […]
